Error while importing large quantity of photos into Photos App on Mac OS Monterey

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Error while importing large quantity of photos into Photos App on Mac OS Monterey

Is anyone else experiencing this and has a better solution:

I recently exported some 9,000 photos from an old Photos library, cleaned and sorted the photos, etc. Then created a clean, fresh, and new Photos library.

I then tried to import about 8,000 photos into that new library. It would import some, then give me an unknown error and fail to import 90% of those photos.

I found this thread on Apple discussions. It seems there's a bug with Photos that prevents the import of large quantities of photos.

The laborious workaround is to import smaller batches <1000 at a time. Even then, after a few imports, the error returns.

I noticed that if I quit and restart Photos, I can resume importing a smaller number of images. It's a pain, but that's all I know.

Does anyone else have a better solution?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Nov 22, 2022 2:22 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 23, 2022 11:52 AM in response to MacMyDays

I just imported 4800 pictures, 30 GB, to a new Photos Library. Took a few minutes. The pictures and the photoslibrary were both on my internal drive. I used Copy Items to Library and not iCloud. (I accidentally did a referenced library first-- it also worked.) The library seems to be OK.

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Answer 2

Nov 23, 2022 9:07 AM in response to MacMyDays

Some questions:

Where are you importing these pictures from? An external drive? How is it formatted? Have you looked at permissions, including "Ignore ownership" and "Apply to enclosed items..."? Where is your photoslibrary located, and how is that drive formatted and permissions granted?

Are you using iCloud? Is "Copy Items to Photos Library" checked in Preferences?

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Answer 3

MacMyDays Author

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Nov 23, 2022 12:15 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Well you are the lucky one! I've managed to import 8k images but it took me a lot longer by doing them in batches of < 1,000.

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Answer 4

MacMyDays Author

Level 1

19 points

Nov 23, 2022 11:34 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Hey Richard,

Thanks for your reply and query. For this particular library I'm not using iCloud and therefore Copy Items to Photos Library isn't checked.

The photos are on an external drive and is formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)". Permissions are set exactly as your screenshot. And Ignore Ownership is checked, as well.

Have you tried to import 2k+ image files into Photos previously with success?

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Error while importing large quantity of photos into Photos App on Mac OS Monterey

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